


The Babysitter's Club

by noblecrescent



Category: Nancy Drew (TV 2019)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bantering, Bickering, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Fluff, Frenemies, Humor, Mutual Pining, One Shot, Requited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-24 16:15:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30074904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/noblecrescent/pseuds/noblecrescent
Summary: Agatha wonders what the urgent S.O.S. text from Ace could mean. Knowing that he and his friends usually get themselves into some crazy, dangerous situations, she's weary when it comes to responding. It's only when she agrees to come to Nancy's house that she realizes she will probably never get use to the group's line of work. Ace definitely owes her.
Relationships: Ace/Original Character(s), Ace/Original Female Character
Comments: 4
Kudos: 1





	The Babysitter's Club

To say Agatha was unimpressed would be an understatement. On her day off from work, she'd gotten a text from Ace with an urgent cry of " _S.O.S."_. It was hilarious that he was asking _her_ for help of all people but also a bit worrisome that he was asking... _her_...of all people. She wasn't at all prepared to deal with any of the cases Ace, Nancy and the others typically picked up. She helped on occasion when the library had to do with it but that was it. She was a little concerned that this big S.O.S. could put her life in danger...

...until she got to Nancy's house and saw what the S.O.S was for.

" _T_ _his_ was your big emergency?"

Ace all but nodded and winced when one of the three college girls he was technically babysitting dropped something (loud) in the kitchen. "I can explain—"

"Ooh, really?" Agatha wanted to laugh but she was also very interested in hearing his explanation. She hadn't even stepped inside yet but she could see from the porch that Nancy's home was quite in distress. Two girls were bickering in the living room with a laptop between them on the verge of falling off the coffee table. Agatha was pretty sure that belonged to Ace. She could see glimpses of the third girl in the kitchen going back and forth for something to probably clean up what she'd dropped. Whatever was going on was hilarious for Agatha, but only for her.

Funny was the last thing Ace thought of right now. "They're, you know..." His flapping gestures towards the three girls did nothing to explain his point, "And you...you're...and then Nancy just left and I—"

" _Ooh_ ," Agatha said suddenly, "I get it now. Nancy left you here to keep an eye on those girls?"

"She took George and Bess too."

"Ah, and so I was your third choice?"

It was hard to tell if that was upsetting for Agatha or not so just in case, Ace thought of many ways to say she wasn't low on the list. "No, not like—" But before he could explain, Nick came running out of the kitchen, past the living room for the stairs.

"Hey! Just need some rags!" Nick exclaimed as he disappeared on the second floor.

Agatha's expression fell flat. " _Fourth_ choice? Seriously?" She turned to Ace looking very much irritated.

As lost as he was with the three girls, Ace felt completely terrified with Agatha right now. " _No_!"

"I'm out of here," Agatha decided and turned to leave.

"N-n-n-n-no! Don't leave!" Ace scrambled after her and grabbed her arm. "Please don't go!"

Agatha wrestled her arm out of his grip. "I gave up my hair appointment to come here!"

"Hair appointment?" Of all the things she could've said, Ace wasn't expecting _that_. It was true that while he'd known Agatha for a long time, he didn't exactly _know_ her either but he never took her for the kind to do _hair_ appointments.

Agatha nodded her head. "I was going to get a haircut! You know, something _you_ might want to invest in!"

Ace deadpanned her. That sounded like the Agatha he knew and only recently _liked_. "Atty, please, I really need your help. Nick and I are failing here—"

"Hilariously, by the way," Agatha made sure to point out. "But keep talking, I like where this is going."

Ace playfully rolled his eyes. "The girls are worried about...someone..." He obviously couldn't tell her everything about this odd case, for her own safety more than anything but the fact Agatha was starting to glare at him again made him wonder if he was making the right decision.

"They're worried about someone?" she asked, clearly expecting for a better explanation.

"...yeah..." No, no, he couldn't tell her anything because the last thing he wanted was to put her in danger. This was different from the times he and Nancy visited the library for Agatha's help. In those moments, they would get what they needed and then they would _leave_ and Agatha would be completely out of harm's way. This time, he had brought Agatha into Nancy's home with the girls who'd somehow let a ghost take their friend. Agatha was no longer safe behind the walls of the library, she was _in_ the house now.

Agatha could never guess everything that was running through his head and because of that, her glare was back. "This was an emergency hair appointment," she said, "And you can't even tell me what the hell is going on?"

"Trust me, please, it's better if you don't know."

Agatha would hate to admit that she did actually trust him. He was idiotic and cocky sometimes but he was no liar. And he wasn't the type to use the word 'trust' lightly. With a sigh, she gave in. "Fine, I'm not privy to the case, I get it. What do you want me to do?" Ace could not put his deep gratitude into words at the moment but it was obvious (and funny) watching him try to. Agatha found herself laughing in the end. "God, you better make this date on Saturday extra good because you owe me."

At this point, Ace could only nod. Every word Agatha said was true and the worst part is he had yet to come up with an idea for their pending date on Saturday. In his defense, he had only asked her out a few days ago and a lot had happened since then. But yes, she was absolutely right and he would definitely make up for this somehow.

"C'mon," Agatha sighed and started back for the house.

The pair came in just as Nick was running down the stairs. "I found some rags!" he exclaimed, holding said white rags tightly in his hands.

"For _what_?" Agatha said, her eyes flickering to the two girls in the living room. They were still bickering and that laptop was in even more danger than it was earlier.

"Zoe just tried making an omelet," Nick gestured to the girl in the kitchen.

"So?"

"In the oven!"

"O-okay..."

"And that was after _he_ —" Nick pointed at Ace, "—yelled at her for trying to make pancakes!"

Agatha glanced at Ace with a raised eyebrow. "Why?"

"In the _oven_!" He exclaimed in return.

"Ah..." Agatha blinked and peered into the living room and kitchen. "Why are they so anxious?"

"Uuh, that may also have been my fault..." Ace rubbed the side of his neck.

"Why?"

"Well...they were really scared about their friend...being in trouble," he said, knowing full well that Agatha knew there was much more than just "being in trouble" at hand, "So I decided to tell them about all the ghosts that we've dealt with."

"Yup," Nick was practically glaring at Ace, "And now they feel a _lot_ better."

Agatha scratched the side of her head. "I am seriously reconsidering being in the same room with you for a whole date."

"Agatha—"

"I'm serious," Agatha laughed quietly. "You have zero skills helping girls out. Exhibit A, B and C are over there!"

Once more, Ace could only nod. "Yes, fine, _help us_."

"Please," Nick added then, after a moment's thought, added, "I'm Nick, by the way...?" He held his free hand out to shake with her while throwing some looks in Ace's direction. Clearly, some explanations were going to be needed later.

Agatha smiled nonetheless and shook hands with him. "Agatha Rhodes."

"Ooh..." Confusion settled pretty quick for Nick. His eyes stuck to Ace. "Don't you hate her?"

Ace's face begged Nick to stop talking.

"Yeah," Agatha turned to him, arms crossed over her chest, with an innocent expression, "Don't you hate me?"

He awkwardly met Agatha's waiting face. " _Please._ " He could only continue begging at this point. "Pancakes in the oven," he reminded.

Agatha playfully rolled her eyes then exhaled deeply. "You two suck at babysitting." She headed for the living room and clapped her hands to get the girls' attention. "Step away from the laptop and the oven!" She made sure to say extra loud for the girl in the kitchen. In less than a minute she had all 3 girls in the living room standing in front of her. "I'm Agatha, a...friend of theirs," she made a nod in Ace's and Nick's direction and nearly snorted when both of them gave meek waves. "I'm the smart one, as you can see. Whatever the hell you're here for is none of my business but you are in a stranger's home and you will treat it with respect. _Got it_?" All three girls winced at the sharpness in that question. They all easily nodded in compliance.

"We're just really nervous," one of the girls said.

"Totally fair," Agatha nodded. "But you need to remember where you are. Plus, you went to Nancy Drew. Whatever problem you have, she'll fix it. In the meantime, how about we do some netflix? I am sure my friend over here can help with that." She looked specifically at Ace to get moving.

"R-right! Yes!" He hurried for the television behind them.

"And I'm sure that my new friend, Nick, can order us a pizza...?"

"Absolutely! On it!" Nick pulled out his phone. "Anything specific?"

"Surprise us," Agatha said, ushering him to get the call going. "And—" when she looked at the girls, the trio straightened up, "—I'm sure that one of you three has a hair tie for me! I'm missing my hair appointment to be here!"

"Oh yeah, that makes sense," one of the girls said, startling Agatha. "I didn't want to say anything, of course, but we can see a couple a split ends from here..." She made a motion to one of Agatha's tips on her left shoulder.

Agatha's expression was flat. She turned sideways to catch Ace's gaze. "You see that? They can _tell_. You _sooo_ owe me."

Ace dutifully nodded. "Promise," he blurted. He would give her whatever she wanted if she kept the girls this quiet until Nancy got back.

When Agatha got a hair tie and she pulled her hair into a pony tail, she clapped her hands for one more thing. "Lastly, which one of you has been trying to make breakfast in the oven?" The blonde girl raised her hand slowly. Agatha smiled at her. "Let's go have a talk...before you decide to make cereal in the oven..." She mumbled the last part as she ushered the girl into the kitchen. "You ever heard of YouTube...?"

~0~

All was well for an hour. The three girls were thoroughly engrossed in a Netflix show that, after much debate, had been picked between the trio with some refereeing by Agatha. Just to make sure that they would sit through the whole episode, Agatha stayed with them in the living room while Ace and Nick cleaned up the mess Zoe had left in the kitchen.

"Wow, you guys did good in here," Agatha remarked when she walked in. The floors were clean of the flour Zoe had spilled. The dishes were washed and put away. "You guys want to come over to my house and clean that too?"

"At this point, if it gets me away from them," Nick pointed towards the kitchen, "I'll go anywhere."

Agatha smiled. "Duly noted. You should know that episode is about to end and I doubt Netflix is going to keep them occupied forever."

Before anyone could say more, Ace's phone buzzed with an incoming text. He scrambled to get it out of his pocket before the girls heard anything but of course, to his and their misfortune, they had eagle ears.

"Is that Nancy!?" Zoe went first.

Evie was already on her way to the kitchen in a dash. "Did she find Jen!?"

To make matters worse, Ace's phone buzzed again.

"Is _that_ Nancy!?" Isabel exclaimed.

"Uh-uh, well, yes—" Ace knew it was the wrong thing to say as soon as the girls all squeaked with nerves.

"What'd she say!?

"Which ghost was it!?"

Each one sounded louder than the last and soon enough, they were all yelling for answers.

"Ooh, the internet's gone out!" Isabel had leaned into the living room to see the television screen pitch black with only one internet signal loss flashing at the center. "Now what are we going to do?"

"Isabel, get real, they might have found Jen!" Evie turned on her friend.

"I was just saying!" huffed Isabel.

"Nancy needs me for something!" Ace was quick to say to Agatha and Nick. "I gotta go!"

"Oh _no_ ," Agatha had to be louder than the girls in order to be heard. "You are not going to leave us with those three!"

"I _need_ to!" It was for his own sanity that he got out of that house. He had no doubt that Agatha would be able to control the girls.

"You need to stay here, dude," Nick was right beside Agatha. "They will outnumber us if you go!"

"No internet, no Netflix—maybe I'll just try to cook something else!" Zoe made a dash for the fridge, leaving Isabel and Evie to continue arguing with each other.

There was genuine fear on Ace's face with that decision. "I'm gonna—I'm going to go! Be careful!"

"Don't you dare!" Agatha yelled after him but he was much too close to the front door to go after her.

"I'm sorry, Atty!"

"Don't you call me that when you're about to ditch me!" Agatha made a couple steps into the living room before Ace all but ran out the front door. Agatha had never felt her insides boil with that much anger, and much less for some guy. She whirled around with an expression that would've made the three girls freeze in their spots had they bothered to look up.

Nick had watched everything and was more cautious than ever. He didn't know this girl at all—she might as well be the fourth stranger in the house. "Hey, um..."

Agatha walked back into the kitchen, shoving Evie and Isabel to the side (and effectively getting the two to stop fighting for a moment), and planted her hands on the isle. "Nick, do you like having Ace as a friend?"

Nick didn't know how to best answer that. "Uh, well, yeah...?" A tingle went down his spine when Agatha smiled wickedly at him.

"Too bad he's going to be murdered soon. The next case Nancy's going to solve is where the hell I've buried his body." Agatha pushed herself away from the counter to go stop Zoe from making bacon in the oven.

~ 0 ~

Agatha sighed as she put away a freshly washed tray back into the lower cabinets. Zoe was officially banned from stress cooking and baking and anything else that involved the use of a stove, an oven and a microwave.

"These are really good," Zoe hummed as she got another spoonful of frozen yogurt. Beside her, Isabel and Evie were also enjoying their own frozen yogurt.

"I didn't know they home delivered," Isabel said.

"They do when you know the owner," Agatha turned to the trio standing on the other end of the isle. She put her rag on the counter behind her with a hard smack.

"...checking in...okay...I love you..." What was probably supposed to be a private voice mail Nick was leaving for George was carrying into the kitchen while everything was relatively quiet.

"Is he calling her _again_?" Isabel asked with raised eyebrows. Nick was coming back to the kitchen pretty crestfallen. It seemed like he and George were having some hard times.

"Hey, I'm feeding you _again_ ," Agatha mimicked her tone. "So I guess we're all doing things we didn't think we'd be doing today." Nick sent her a small, though very grateful, smile in her direction. " _I_ definitely wasn't planning on babysitting three grown college girls on my day off from work." It was fairly funny how each girl pouted like a domino chain. "But, for some reason, here I am."

"Mhm," Nick came to stand beside her. He eyed the last frozen yogurt bowl on the isle. Agatha slid it over to him. He didn't hesitate to grab a spoon and dig in. "There was a-a freak accident, and my girlfriend almost died. But she's fine now. We're all fine. You know, it's fine. But...it was scary and I'm worried about her."

Agatha's eyes had widened to the brim, almost seeming like they would pop right out of her head. "You guys _what_?" All Nick could do was shrug. "Dude, you need my frozen yogurt too." She grabbed her bowl from the counter and slid right in front of Nick.

"Hmm," Isabel hummed, drawing the pair's attention to see the trio of girls exchanging nods with each other.

"What?" Nick asked them.

"We've got a rare case here," Isabel said and before they could ask her what she meant, she answered them, "Girl _and_ boy trouble at the same time."

Agatha's hands shot up front of her. "Woah, you heard his story right? His girlfriend nearly _died_. I think he wins—not that this is about winning!" Nick playfully rolled his eyes at her. "Because that is not something worth winning."

"Well, if we're going by priority..." Evie shrugged her shoulders, "If I survived a freak accident, I wouldn't want anyone hovering. You know, I'd want to move on, and I'd want the people I love to move on, too."

"I don't know," Isabel bobbed her head, "I think I'd want people to keep checking in on me, even if I wasn't ready to talk about it yet. It's nice to know people care."

Nick looked between both girls, hopelessly lost. "So, should I send a follow-up text or-or not?"

"I think it's up to you," Zoe said.

Nick's expression went sour. "Oh, well, thanks." He glumly dug into his frozen yogurt again. Agatha felt for him. She placed a hand on his shoulder to offer some type of support.

"And you," she suddenly heard Isabel say to her, "What's your story?"

Agatha scrunched her face. "My what?"

"Your story," Isabel looked at her oddly, "Between you and Ace?"

Still, Agatha didn't understand the question. "There is no story."

"There's definitely something between you two."

"Yeah, okay, my story's stupid," Agatha didn't hesitate to say. She was typically blunt and talking to strangers didn't exactly hinder that talent. "Up until five days ago, we hated each other. I'm talking ' _let's avoid each other or we'll end up going back and forth bickering_ ' kind of thing."

"I'm a witness to that," Nick confirmed before taking a spoonful of yogurt into his mouth. Agatha pointed at him in gratitude. "Her name was prohibited at all times."

"I respect that—I hated him too," Agatha nodded.

"But did you though?" Zoe cocked her head to the side with a smirk growing on her face.

Agatha preferred not to answer but her visible blush betrayed her a minute later. The girls giggled. "I don't know, I'm hating him pretty hard right now," Agatha muttered under her breath.

Nick silently slid over her yogurt bowl. She needed it too.

~ 0 ~

Everything was a thousand times better when Nancy returned home with the missing girl beside her; a huge misunderstanding was cleared. The three girls were ecstatic to have Jennifer back safe and sound that they still wanted to make her part of their volleyball team. Even when Jennifer politely declined, the group was still closer than ever.

"All's well that ends well," Nancy said to her friends as they watched the girls begin making plans for another trip, hopefully involving less hazing.

"Yeeeah, for _some_ people," Agatha was quick to say. She had yet to stop throwing glares at Ace ever since they got back from the hotel. To say she was still upset would be another understatement. He knew he had a lot of work ahead of him.

"Agatha!" Zoe exclaimed suddenly, startling the brunette in question. "We'll see you on campus on Thursday! Maybe we can do some coffee?"

Agatha plastered a smile for the trio and nodded her head. "Yeah, sounds good. I'll, um, be going now." She didn't bother giving a proper goodbye to the others except, ironically for Nick, and started for the door.

"She did karaoke with the girls," Nick decided to tell Ace, and as quietly as possible so the girls wouldn't hear.

Nancy, however, heard perfectly and the look on her face was the same one Agatha had done when the Isabel asked her to join the karaoke. "Seriously?"

Nick nodded. "Yeah." He clapped Ace on the shoulder. "You _so_ owe her."

Knowing that terrible detail, Ace had zero doubts about the owing. He turned fast for the door and went after Agatha. "Hey, Agatha!"

"Nope!" Agatha snapped, picking up her pace down the front yard.

"Atty, please!"

Agatha whirled around, almost crashing into him in the process. " _Don't_ call me that! Don't ever call me that again! In fact, don't call me ever again! No calls, no texts, no nothing!"

"Agatha, I'm really sorry, okay? I just...I couldn't take that madhouse!" It was a poor excuse, Ace knew, but he needed to start somewhere.

"But _I_ could?" Agatha demanded incredulously.

"Nick and I were in that house for an hour with zero control but you walked in there and commanded the entire room in 30 seconds. You're a lot stronger than we are."

"No, I'm not. I'm just somebody who's used to dealing with busybodies in the library. _You're_ the one who's used to dealing with missing people and runaway ghosts! You left me in that house to go help Nancy on a case I didn't even know about!"

Ace picked up on the past tense of that sentence. "Wait, you know?"

Agatha nodded with a sigh. "Zoe sang like a canary once I bought them frozen yogurt."

"You bought them frozen yogurt?"

"Yes, to calm them down after you left! You know, I learned more about four strangers than I know about you. Ace, I did _karaoke_ with them!" Horror flashed across Agatha's eyes at the memory of the dozen songs she had to perform. "Those girls will never take me serious again—your friend Nick will never take me serious!" And perhaps that's where the fear settled in. "Your friends, Ace, will never take me serious."

Dots finally connected in Ace's head. It was almost silly to the point he wanted to laugh but the fear of further upsetting Agatha stopped him. She _did_ want to see him again and she wanted his friends to like her. "You think they won't like you? Agatha, right now, Nick and Nancy respect you so much for what you did back there. You might as well be part of the group."

Agatha doubted it. "Please. Doesn't matter now. You and I are not happening. Not here, not there—" she pointed at Nancy's house— "Not anywhere!"

"At the risk of you sounding like a Dr. Seuss book..." Ace trailed off when Agatha threw him a glare, "Not that I don't enjoy those books. I panicked and it's a sucky excuse and you have no idea how sorry I am. Let me make it up to you."

" _Why_!?" Agatha yelled.

"Because I want to!" Ace yelled right back. If it was the only way she'd listen to him then so be it. "Because I really want to go on a date with you!"

"Since _when_?" Agatha laughed humorlessly. "I mean, aren't we a little crazy here? You and I have always been at each other's necks. Why would we suddenly think that we could work as a...a couple?"

"Agatha, right now, _you're_ crazy! You were just telling me that my friends wouldn't like you and the only reason you would be so worried about that is because you _want_ them to like you. And why would you want that?"

"Shut up," Agatha muttered, folding her arms over her chest.

Ace smiled at her. "Proving my point. C'mon, Atty, let me make it up to you."

Agatha wanted so badly to say 'absolutely not' just to prove _her_ point, but of course that would be lying and she wasn't a liar. Plus, maybe she did want to keep seeing him. "...only if you stop calling me that."

"Why? I like it." Ace reached over to unfold her arms and kept his hands around hers.

"Nobody calls me that!"

"Well then, I want to be the only one. Be different, you know?"

"You really think you need something else to make you different Mr. Ghost Hunter?"

"Ghost _buster,"_ Ace corrected and made Agatha laugh. He smiled at her. She actually had a very pretty laugh.

"Right," she shook her head at him.

"So what do you say, then? Do I get another chance?"

"Well...I guess maybe you did go for a good reason. You guys found the girl," Agatha sighed. "I suppose that's ground zero for a make up opportunity. But we might have to push the date back a few days. My hair?" She pulled one of her hands out of Ace's to motion to her pony tail. "You made me miss my appointment."

"Right," Ace nodded. "You know my friend Bess may have a few connections she could use to help you out there. She can get you into one of those fancy salons."

Agatha chuckled. "She doesn't know me that well."

"Yeah, but you're part of the group now. She can do it, though if you asked me you don't really need it."

"Oh, I need it, get calling!" Agatha pulled her other hand out of his. "Tell her it's an emergency!"

Ace knew better than to not listen to her. He pulled out his phone to give Bess a call. "It's ringing," he told Agatha a few seconds later.

She was pretending to be irritated with him and it was slightly, just slightly, attractive. Her nose scrunched slightly, making her look a bit funnier than she was probably intending. Out of nowhere, he swooped down and kissed her.

Agatha hadn't expected it but even then her lips responded before her mind would completely catch up. It was strange to think that one moment she'd been cursing at him for years of what he would die of and when a moment of actual death sprung up on him, she was crazy worried and _afraid_. That thought alone made her kiss him harder.

"You know what I said about you investing in a hair cut?" She whispered when they'd pulled apart slightly.

Ace could feel her hand stroking the tips of his hair. A nod is all he could do to respond.

"Don't," Agatha said, making him both chuckle and flush at the same time.

"Okay," Ace was quick to agree. He went to kiss her again when they heard Bess' loud " _Hello!?_ " over the phone. Ace cleared his throat quickly to take up the call he'd admittedly forgotten he made. "Yeah, um, Bess? I need a favor..."

He met Agatha's gaze and sent her a wink. She blushed and looked away but felt his hand taking her right hand again. It was strange alright but as they had both agreed before, it was a good type of strange they wanted to hold onto.

**Author's Note:**

> P.S I have a tumblr account dedicated to my fanfic works! It's also a place where anyone can comment about a story or even just talk to me! I often drop aesthetic work belonging to my stories too! Feel free to check it out, my URL is "saiilorstars"


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